Early Music

"I believe strongly that what my generation expects out of the concert experience is something very different from what Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall offer."

The Four Nations Ensemble vividly evoked in music the 18th century "Grand Tour" tradition with music of Vivaldi, Corelli, Pergolesi and more.

Cantata Profana explores via collage the story of a rape that, according to legend, triggered the fall of the monarchy in ancient Rome.

Heartbeat Opera and Opera Lafayette have devised a superb staged production of the baroque oratorio 'La Susana,' retelling a biblical story of sexual harassment with love, humor, seductive grace, and wonderful music.

The early music group illuminated the consonances between jazz and baroque music and had a good deal of fun doing it.

The concert featured a closetful of varied recorders, most copied from original instruments of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

The latest album from the celebrated English early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico, 'In a Strange Land: Elizabethan Composers in Exile,' is a beautiful sequence with works by John Dowland, William Byrd, and their contemporaries – and a decidedly melancholy affair.

In France in the early 18th century, minuets, sarabandes, and gigues were written to be literally danced to, sometimes by popular professional dancers. Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations recall those days with music by Telemann and Jean-Fery Rebel.

The monks retreated behind stone walls to chant their devotions. Composer Lansing McLoskey stands in the agora with his choral music on writings by Wole Soyinka.

In the hands of a gifted group like Vox Luminis, Bach's motets exhibit the great composer's artistic genius as fully as anything else he wrote.